Dear Friends of American Voices.
We are pleased to announce a generous matching gift challenge made by an anonymous donor here in St. Louis. We've been offered $2,500 in support of our YES Academy in Kurdistan, Iraq, this coming June 20-30, if we can generate matching gifts totaling that amount by June 1, 2013.
With your help we can raise a total of $5,000 which will enable us to involve even more students from many regions of Iraq in our performing arts academy including strings, piano, voice, dance, jazz, and Broadway performers, concluding in 2 big gala concerts at the end of the academy.
Ari Kawa, pictured above, says the Yes Academy in his home city of Duhok, in northern Iraq, gave him leadership skills and teacher training that will be very valuable. Now he is an American Voices Scholarship student at East Carolina University. Ari will return to Duhok to become Director of the Institute of Fine Arts.
Please make your gift today to ensure the success of this challenge and to make sure that we won't lose this matching gift. You can make a gift via our Website or by sending your check to:
American Voices-Matching Challenge
PO Box 63421
St. Louis, MO 63163
Please be sure to make a memo on your gift that says 'Yes Iraq Challenge' and it must be postmarked by June 1, 2013.
The performing arts students of Iraq thank you for your generosity. We will post photos and videos from the summer events for you to see online.
We thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
American Voices
P.S. If any of you would like to visit us during the program in Suleimanya, we are sure that you would enjoy the beautiful mountainous city in the northeast Kurdish region which has been recommended as a tourist destination by the New York Times. Contact Marc Thayer with travel inquiries: marc.thayer@americanvoices.org
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